Microelectronic manufacturing techniques have led to the miniaturization of numerous devices. Mobile phones, personal digital assistant devices, and digital cameras are very common examples of the miniaturization trend.
One device that has not seen the advantage of microelectronic manufacturing techniques is the printer. Commercially available printers are large compared to many of the devices they could support. For instance, it is impractical to carry a color printer for the purpose of instantly printing photographs taken with known compact digital cameras.
A compact printhead has been described in co-pending United States Patent Applications filed simultaneously to the present application and hereby incorporated by cross reference:
U.S. Pat. No.Title6,428,133Ink jet printhead having a movingnozzle with an externally arrangedactuator6,526,658Method of manufacture of an ink jetprinthead having a moving nozzlewith an externally arranged actuator6,390,591Nozzle guard for an ink jet printhead7,018,016Fluidic seal for an ink jet nozzleassembly6,328,417Ink jet printhead nozzle array
In order to construct a camera module for a compact printer system it is necessary to address the problem of control of the image capture and transformation process. Methods of very large scale integration and microelectronic manufacturing are known but have not been applied to the needs of a compact printer system. No suitable image processor exists for a camera module that connects directly to a printer module.